BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


Matthew  Fontaine  Maury 


-By 
Elizabeth  Buford  Phillips 


Matthew  Fontaine  Maury 

BY 
Elizabeth  Buford  Phillips 

Historian 


Mary  Mildred  Sullivan  Chapter 
United  Daughters  of  the  Confederacy 

New  York  City 


Read  at  the  Regular  Monthly  Meeting  of  the  Chapter,  April  4,  1921 


GrC 


PtT 


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Matthew  Fontaine  Maury 

Hydrographer,  Christian  Philosopher,  Exile 


[HERE  is  no  hour  within  the  life  of  Maury  which 
stands  out  with  more  symbolic  grandeur,  none  more 
pregnant  in  brief  recital  of  his  deeds  and  character, 
none  of  more  permanent  significance  than  the  one 
here  chosen  as  the  Prologue  of  this  chronicle.  We 
are  indebted,  for  the  preservation  of  these  details,  to  the  Diary  of 
Maury's  daughter,  Mrs.  James  R.  Werth,  who,  as  guest  of  the 
Vice-Chancellor  of  Cambridge  University,  was  present  when  the 
Honorary  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  was  conferred  upon  her 
father. 

It  was  in  the  early  summer  of  1868  that  this  degree  was  there 
conferred  upon  four  notable  men :  Thomas  Wright,  English  An- 
tiquarian and  Translator  of  Egyptian  Hieroglyphics  for  the  Brit- 
ish Museum;  Max  Muller,  German  Orientalist  and  Oxford  Pro- 
fessor of  Sanskrit  Literature;  Alfred  Tennyson,  Poet  Laureate 
of  England's  Victorian  era,  and  Matthew  Fontaine  Maury,  Amer- 
ican Author,  Scientist,  and  Exile. 

In  scholastic  cap,  and  gown  of  crimson  cloth,  these  diversely 
gifted  men  might  have  sat  as  modern  models  for  an  immortal 
canvas!  Civilization,  Genius,  and  Religion,  in  noble  majesty, 
seemed  there  enthroned  in  that  centuries-old  University — in  Cam- 
bridge, the  City  of  Refuge,  in  England,  the  Asylum  of  the  Exile ! 
Four  wise  men  from  out  of  the  West  here  brought  their  gifts  and 
were  here  to  receive  from  this  great  University  the  seal  of  her 
approval.  The  ceremony  was  at  once  brilliant  and  impressive. 
In  accordance  with  immemorial  custom,  it  was  conducted  through- 
out in  Latin,  but  the  comprehensive  oration  of  the  Dean,  in  in- 
troducing Maury,  is  here  given  in  translation  : 

"I  present  to  you  Matthew  Fontaine  Maury,  who,  while 
serving  in  the  American  Navy,  did  not  permit  the  keen  edge  of 

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his  mind  to  be  dulled  or  his  ardor  for  study  to  be  dissipated  by 
the  variety  of  his  professional  labors  or  his  continual  change  of 
place,  but  who,  by  the  attentive  observation  of  the  course  of  the 
winds,  the  climate,  trie  currents  of  the  seas  and  oceans,  acquired 
those  materials  for  knowledge  which,  afterwards,  in  Washington, 
he  systematized  in  charts  and  in  a  book, — charts  which  are  now 
in  the  hands  of  all  seamen  and  a  book  which  has  carried  the  fame 
of  its  author  into  the  most  distant  countries  of  the  earth.  Nor  is 
he  merely  a  high  authority  in  Nautical  Science.  He  is  also  a  pat- 
tern of  noble  manners  and  good  morals,  because  in  the  guidance 
of  his  own  life  he  has  always  shown  himself  a  brave  and  good 
man.  When  that  cruel  civil  war  in  America  was  imminent,  this 
man  did  not  hesitate  to  leave  home  and  friends,  a  place  of  honor 
and  an  office  singularly  adapted  to  his  genius — to  throw  away,  in  a 
word,  all  the  goods  and  gifts  of  Fortune — that  he  might  defend 
and  sustain  the  cause  that  seemed  to  him  the  just  one. 

"  'The  victorious  cause  pleased  the  gods,'  and  now,  perhaps, 
as  victorious  causes  will  do,  it  pleases  the  majority  of  men;  and 
yet,  no  one  can  withhold  his  admiration  from  the  man  who, 
though  numbered  among  the  vanquished,  held  his  faith  pure  and 
unblemished,  even  at  the  price  of  poverty  and  exile." 

In  that  day's  work,  typical  of  England's  ever-advancing  civ- 
ilization, Cambridge  honored  herself  in  honoring  a  man,  the  ex- 
ponent of  high  character  and  of  world-wide  service.  But  we  may 
not  linger  there,  even  to  enjoy  with  the  Maurys  the  Strawberry 
Festival  in  the  garden  of  Britain's  Astronomer- Royal,  John  Couch 

Adams,  co-discoverer,  with  Le  Verrier,  of  the  Planet  Neptune. 
***###****** 

This  sketch  must  be  brief,  but  a  logical  discussion  of  Maury's 
career  necessarily  includes  some  account  of  his  ancestors  and  in- 
cidental reference  to  his  own  early  environment — his  home,  his 
pursuits,  his  education. 

Reviewing  the  history  of  all  nations,  ever  and  again  the  pages 
are  found  blurred  by  the  cruelties  of  political  and  religious  perse- 
cution. Thus  it  was  for  centuries  in  France :  there  was  no  es- 
cape for  the  Huguenots  from  torture  and  death,  after  the  Revoca- 
tion of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  except  to  abjure  their  faith  or  to  seek 
refuge  in  foreign  lands.  Many  of  the  most  intelligent,  industri- 

4 


ous  and  moral  of  these  French  Protestants  found  safety  in  Amer- 
ica. Of  these,  in  1714,  there  settled  in  Virginia  among  the  Eng- 
lish already  more  than  a  century  there,  the  Fontaines  and  the 
Maurys,  names  long  famous  in  French  literature,  French  archi- 
tecture and  in  the  best  annals  of  the  French  Church. 

Matthew  Fontaine  Maury  was  of  the  fifth  generation  of 
these  families  in  Virginia;  his  father,  Richard  Maury,  was  the 
sixth  son  of  the  Rev.  James  Maury,  an  Episcopal  clergyman  and 
teacher  of  Walker  Parish,  Albemarle  County,  Virginia,  who  left 
the  impress  of  his  influence  in  the  simple  ritual  which  still  pre- 
vails in  that  Diocese  and,  no  less,  his  influence  as  a  teacher  upon 
the  founders  of  the  Republic;  he  numbered  among  his  students 
five  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  two  or  three 
future  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  Jefferson,  the  immortal 
exponent  of  modern  democracy,  'belonging  to  both  groups.  The 
father  of  the  Rev.  James  Maury  was  Matthew  Maury,  "a  Hugue- 
not gentleman" ;  his  mother,  Mary  Ann  Fontaine,  the  only  daugh- 
ter of  the  Rev.  James  Fontaine,  who  in  1722  occupied  his  leisure 
writing  his  autobiography,  for  the  use  and  edification  of  his  chil- 
dren. He  began  the  family  record  with  the  birth,  in  1500,  of 
Jean  de  la  Fontaine,  who,  with  his  wife,  was  cruelly  murdered 
sixty-three  years  later,  by  religious  fanatics.  Their  three  sons 
escaped  and  lived  to  rear  large  families.  The  Reverend  Auto- 
biographer,  with  much  fervor,  exhorted  his  descendants  never  to 
forget  that  the  blood  of  martyrs  coursed  in  their  veins.  In  1872, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  this  manuscript  was  discovered 
in  the  home  of  Mr.  James  Fontaine,  near  Richmond,  Virginia.  It 
was  translated  and  published  under  the  title,  "The  Memoirs  of  a 
Huguenot  Family,"  by  Miss  Ann-Fun  Idim  Maury,  the  great-great- 
granddaughter  of  the  autobiographer. 

While  Jefferson  was  still  a  lad  the  grandfather  of  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch  was  already  teaching  the  wonderful  political 
future  awaiting  America;  he  was  preaching  a  bona-fide  Ameri- 
canism to  which  the  present-day  type  is  but  a  counterfeit.  W^ho 
can  doubt  that  Jefferson  profited  by  his  teachings ! 

Richard  Maury  shared  with  the  Master-BuilderJof  the  Re- 
public his  father's  wise  instruction  and  beneficent  example.  In 
1790  he  married  Diana  Minor,  the  daughter  of  Major  John  Minor, 


of  Topping  Castle,  Caroline  County,  Virginia.  They  established 
a  home  near  Fredericksburg,  Virginia,  and  there,  in  1793,  their 
eldest  son,  John  Minor  Maury,  was  born  and  there,  also,  was  born, 
on  January  I4th,  1806,  their  fourth  son,  Matthew  Fontaine 
Maury,  each  to  add  honor  and  distinction  to  the  annals  of  the 
American  Navy. 

It  was  from  this  Spotsylvania  home,  in  1810,  that  Richard 
Maury,  heeding  the  call  of  the  West,  set  out  with  his  family,  by 
the  wagon  trail,  for  the  Blue  Grass  Region  of  Tennessee,  and  set- 
tled on  the  Big  Harpeth  River  near  Franklin.  That  tedious  jour- 
ney of  more  than  500  miles  may  be  more  easily  imagined  than 
described,  but  at  last  it  ended  on  the  borderland  of  the  Golden 
West.  They  were  again  domiciled — father,  mother,  and  eight 
children,  all  except  John  Minor,  a  lad  of  seventeen,  already  four 
years  a  midshipman  in  the  United  States  Navy. 

Work  in  plenty  awaited  them,  and  to  the  question,  Where- 
withal shall  we  be  fed  and  clothed,  came  the  answer  in  the 
abundant  harvests  garnered  by  father  and  sons  and  in  the  spin- 
ning, weaving  and  knitting  of  the  mother  and  daughters.  No 
material  needs  were  unsupplied,  but  schools  were  few  and,  in  the 
remote  country  districts,  mainly  of  the  "Old  Field"  variety  and 
in  session  only  when  inclement  weather  suspended  agricultural 
operations. 

However,  the  light  on  the  home  altar  was  never  extinguished. 
"The  Psalter  for  the  Day"  was  read  morning  and  evening,  "verse 
and  verse  about,"  and  so  it  was  that  young  Matthew,  day  by  day, 
reverently  acquired  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  truths,  style 
and  literature  of  the  Bible,  which,  in  later  years,  lent  grace  and 
charm  to  his  life  and  writings.  Nor  was^  this  all.  Family  records 
were  carefully  preserved,  and  family  traditions  loyally  cherished ; 
moreover,  the  mails  sometimes  brought  letters  from  the  East,  and 
from  the  sailor  lad,  now  advanced  from  warrant  midshipman  to 
a  commissioned  officer  in  the  Navy.  These  letters  kindled  a  wan- 
derlust in  the  heart  and  brain  of  his  younger  brother  which  no 
discouragement  could  damp;  on  the  contrary,  insignificant  trifles 
and  even  dire  accidents  became  stepping-stones  to  more  schooling 
and  the  coveted  midshipman's  warrant;  the  mysterious  "x-fy's" 
of  the  ambitious  country  cobbler  determined  Matthew  to  emulate 


him  in  the  study  of  mathematics ;  the  fall  from  dizzy  heights  led 
from  the  plough-handles  to  the  open  door  of  Harpeth  Academy — 
the  school  rescued  him  from  the  farm  to  render  him  the  more 
potential  friend  of  the  farmer  and  of  mankind. 

At  Harpeth  Academy,  the  Principal,  Rev.  James  H.  Otey, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Tennessee,  and  his  assistant,  William  C. 
Hasbrouck,  later  an  eminent  lawyer  of  New  York,  recognized  the 
rare  gifts  and  high  character  of  the  young  student  and  became 
his  life-long  friends  and  mentors. 

Upon  the  death  in  1824  of  Lieutenant  John  Minor  Maury 
after  an  eighteen  years'  career  of  active  service  and  thrilling  ad- 
venture, the  face  of  his  father  was  steadfastly  set  against  mid- 
shipman's warrants  and  the  perils  of  the  sea  for  another  son; 
hence,  the  next  year,  when  Matthew  received  a  midshipman's 
warrant,  through  the  influence  of  his  representative  in  Congress, 
the  Hon.  Sam  Houston,  though  his  father  did  not  absolutely  for- 
bid the  acceptance  of  it,  he  withheld  from  his  son  all  financial  aid 
and  even  the  parental  blessing;  but  the  young  midshipman  went 
reverently  forward  to  his  appointed  work  and  no  knight  of  the 
knightliest  days  ever  set  out  more  amply  clothed  on  with  right- 
eousness. With  thirty  dollars  paid  him  by  Mr.  Hasbrouck  for 
his  assistance  with  the  lower  classes  in  the  Academy  and  on  a 
borrowed  horse,  he  fared  forth  on  the  old  trail  back  to  Virginia 
whence  he  had  come  fifteen  years  before. 

A  journey  of  two  weeks  brought  him,  in  fine  mettle  though 
with  but  fifty  cents  in  his  pocket,  to  the  home  of  his  kindred  in 
Albemarle  County,  Virginia.  With  the  discretion  born  of  pride 
and  independence,  he  wisely  kept  his  financial  straits  to  him- 
self, but  sold  the  borrowed  horse,  transmitted  the  money,  as  he 
had  agreed  to  do,  to  the  owner  in  Tennessee,  and  hastened  on  to 
Washington;  there  he  was  allowed  fifteen  cents  mileage  from 
Franklin,  Tennessee,  to  the  Capital,  and  received  his  warrant  as 
of  date  of  February  ist,  1825.  (Note  the  coincidence:  Maury 
died  48  years  later,  February  ist,  1873.) 

The  frigate  Brandywine  had  been  designated  by  the  Govern- 
ment to  convey  Lafayette  back  to  France  after  his  last  visit  to 
America,  and  on  this  voyage  Maury  saw  his  first  sea  service.  The 
old  friend  of  America  did  not  fail  to  note  the  active,  studious  lad, 


learning  his  first  lessons  in  Spanish  and  Navigation  from  the 
same  book,  and  had  many  a  kindly  talk  with  him. 

Later,  the  Brandywine  cruised  in  British  and  Mediterranean 
waters,  returning  to  America  in  1826,  after  transferring  Maury 
to  the  sloop-of-war  Vincennes  for  the  cruise  around  the  world, 
which  occupied  four  years.  During  this  voyage  the  Vincennes 
touched  at  Nukahiva,  one  of  the  French  Marquesas  group.  This 
island  was  reminiscent  of  his  brother  John's  enforced  two  years' 
sojourn  there  during  the  second  war  with  Great  Britain.  His  was 
a  genuine  "Robinson  Crusoe"  experience,  too  thrilling  to  omit  yet 
too  long  to  be  included  in  this  record.  The  King  of  the  Isle  rec- 
ognized Matthew  from  his  resemblance  to  his  brother  and  offered 
to  adopt  him  as  his  son  and  heir,  but  neither  the  honor  nor  the 
life  in  the  cocoanut  grove  appealed  to  the  young  midshipman. 

He  continued  his  study  of  Navigation,  Spanish,  and  Spher- 
ical Trigonometry  during  the  cruise  and  was  a  close  observer  of 
winds  and  currents.  Upon  his  return,  after  his  examinations,  he 
received  the  advanced  rank  of  passed  midshipman  and  in  1831 
was  appointed  sailing-master  of  the  sloop-of-war  Falmouth,  on 
the  Pacific  Station.  Anxious  to  make  a  quick  trip  and  unable  to 
find  in  New  York  sufficient  information  on  winds  and  currents, 
he  resolved  some  day  to  supply  this  need. 

Soon  after  his  return  to  the  East,  in  1834,  he  married  his 
cousin,  Miss  Ann  Herndon,  whom  he  met  on  his  first  visit  to  Vir- 
ginia in  1825.  During  the  next  two  years,  he  prepared  for  pub- 
lication a  treatise  on  navigation — the  first  nautical  work  of  science 
that  had  ever  come  from  the  pen  of  a  naval  officer — "a  book  that 
carried  the  fame  of  its  author  to  the  most  distant  countries  of  the 
earth." 

His  last  active  sea  service  was  the  making  of  surveys  of  the 
Southern  Harbors.  After  more  than  a  year  of  this  work,  in  1839, 
^Maury  obtained  a  few  weeks'  leave  to  visit  his  aged  parents  in 
Tennessee  and  make  arrangements  to  bring  them  to  Virginia  to 
live  with  him.  On  his  return  trip,  at  Somerset,  Ohio,  he  was  so 
severely  injured  in  a  stage-coach  accident  that  he  would  be  for 
ever  unfit  for  active  sea  service.  He  regarded  this  as  the  great- 
est calamity  of  his  life,  but  it  proved  another  blessing  in  disguise 
and  really  set  him  forward  in  a  broader  and  richer  field  of  achieve- 


ment.  While  physically  disabled,  "his  active  and  comprehensive 
mind"  planned  reforms  and  other  improvements  of  general  inter- 
est which  were  soon  embodied  in  treatises  and  published  incognito 
in  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger  under  the  title,  "Scraps  from 
the  Lucky  Bag."  Their  publication  brought  him  an  ever-increas»- 
ing  world  audience  and  the  adoption  of  many  of  his  suggestions 
contributed  largely  to  the  development  of  the  country. 

Notable  among  these  suggestions  were  the  establishment  of 
a  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  where  the  young  midshipmen 
might  learn  the  higher  duties  of  their  profession ;  the  building  of 
a  dock  and  navy  yard  at  Memphis,  with  a  school  of  instruction 
for  naval  engineers,  that  they  might  learn  the  use  and  control  of 
steam,  then  coming  into  use;  the  development  of  a  ship  canal 
connecting  the  Illinois  River  and  Lake  Michigan,  and  the  erection 
of  forts  along  the  South  Atlantic  and  Gulf  Coasts. 

When  it  became  known  that  Maury  was  the  author  of  these 
papers,  his  ability  was  generally  acknowledged  and  his  position  as 
an  authority  on  naval  affairs  was  established;  as  a  result,  on  the 
recommendation  of  brother  officers,  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the 
Depot  of  Charts  and  Instruments,  which,  under  his  direction,  was 
developed  into  the  National  Observatory  and  Hydrographic  De- 
partment of  the  Government. 

At  this  time  Maury  was  thirty-seven  years  old  and  had  been 
seventeen  years  in  the  naval  service.  He  now  labored  assidu- 
ously to  obtain  information  as  to  the  winds  and  currents,  by  dis- 
tributing to  captains  of  vessels  specially  prepared  log  books,  and 
in  the  caurse  of  nine  years  he  had  collected  a  sufficient  number  of 
logs  to  make  two  hundred  manuscript  volumes  each  with  twenty- 
five  hundred  days'  observations.  One  result  was  to  show  the  nec- 
essity of  combined  action  on  the  part  of  maritime  nations,  in  re- 
gard to  ocean  meteorology.  This  led  to  an  international  benefit 
to  navigation,  as  well  as,  indirectly,  to  meteorology.  Maury  at- 
tempted to  organize  co-operative  meteorological  work  on  land, 
but  the  Government  did  not,  at  that  time,  take  any  steps  in  this 
direction.  His  oceanographical  work,  however,  received  recog- 
nition in  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world. 

Of  his  meteorological  work  on  land,  with  prophetic  vision 
Maury  said,  "Take  notice  now,  this  plan  of  crop  and  weather 

9 


reports  is  my  thunder;  if  you  see  some  one  in  Washington  run- 
ning away  with  it,  then  recollect  where  the  lightning  came  from/' 
As  we  eagerly  read  the  daily  "Weather  Reports/'  we  realize,  tru- 
ly, that  the  world  has  run  away  with  his  "thunder,"  while  but  few 
remember  whence  "the  lightning  came"  ! 

The  interest  excited  by  the  practical  application  of  meteor- 
ology to  navigation  enabled  Maury  in  1853  to  assemble  at  Brus- 
sels under  the  auspices  of  King  Leopold  a  Congress  of  the  chief 
commercial  nations  of  the  earth.  At  this  Congress  Maury  repre- 
sented the  United  States.  Its  object  was  the  further  develop- 
ment of  meteorological  research.  In  his  report  to  Congress, 
Maury  says  of  the  Brussels  Conference : 

"Rarely  has  there  been  presented  to  the  scientific  world  so 
sublime  a  spectacle,  all  nations  agreeing  to  unite  and  co-operate 
in  carrying  out,  according  to  the  same  plan,  one  system  of  philo- 
sophical research  with  regard  to  the  sea.  Every  ship  that  navi- 
gates the  high  seas  with  these  charts  and  abstract-logs  may  be 
regarded,  henceforth,  as  a  floating  observatory — a  temple  of  sci- 
ence!" 

At  the  close  of  the  Conference,  Maury  returned  to  his  old 
post  at  Washington,  laden  with  honors  and  rich  in  fame.  The 
use  of  Maury's  "Sailing  Directions"  and  his  "Wind  and  Current 
Charts"  proved  highly  satisfactory  to  the  large  Steamship  Com- 
panies, and  this  satisfaction  the  merchants  and  underwriters  of 
New  York  expressed  by  presenting  to  Maury  at  a  public  dinner 
$5,000  in  gold  and  a  handsome  silver  service.  This  service  is 
now  owned  by  his  granddaughter,  Miss  Ann  Maury  of  Richmond, 
Virginia. 

In  Europe  many  learned  societies  elected  him  an  honorary 
member  of  their  bodies,  orders  of  knighthood  were  offered  him, 
and  medals  were  struck  in  his  honor.  Though  thus  honored  in 
business  circles  and  by  learned  societies  at  home  and  abroad,  sin- 
ister methods,  born  of  ignoble  motives,  began  to  manifest  them- 
selves in  national  legislation.  Congress,  in  1855,  passed  a  bill  to 
Promote  the  Efficiency  of  the  Navy.  Under  this  Act,  the  Navy 
Retiring  Board  placed  Maury  on  the  retired  list.  This  action 
aroused  a  storm  of  popular  indignation,  in  consequence  of  which, 

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three  years  later,  he  was  reinstated  with  the  advanced  rank  of 
Commander,  as  of  the  date  of  his  retirement. 

Meantime,  the  Government  had  approved  Maury's  purpose 
of  keeping  the  Nation  to  the  front  in  Nautical  Science.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  was  directed  by  Congress  to  detail  suitable 
vessels  to  test  the  new  routes  and  to  perfect  the  discoveries  made 
by  Maury.  From  time  to  time  these  vessels,  with  capable  offi- 
cers, were  dispatched  on  this  service.  Among  these,  on  the  brig 
Dolphin,  Lieutenant  Berryman  was  employed  on  special  service 
connected  with  the  Hydrographic  Office.  His  soundings  with 
Brooke's  deep-sea  sounding  apparatus  established,  beyond  a  doubt, 
the  practicability  of  laying  a  submarine  telegraphic  cable  between 
Newfoundland  and  Ireland. 

On  this  subject,  there  are  on  file  in  the  National  Observatory 
hundreds  of  letters  to  officials,  scientists  and  business  men,  prov- 
ing Maury's  part  in  this  great  enterprise,  none  more  briefly  con- 
vincing than  the  generous  pronouncement  by  Cyrus  W.  Field. 
What  did  he  say  at  that  dinner  in  New  York  celebrating  the       rt 
transmission  of  the  first  message  *&  cable  ?   When  asked  to  give    && 
an  account  of  the  work  he  arose  and  replied :  "I  am  a  man  of  few 
words.     Maury  furnished  the  brains,  England  gave  the  money, 
and  I  did  the  work/' 

Brains,  Money,  Work!  and  the  greatest  of  these  is — no,  let 
us  make  no  invidious  comparisons.  Truly,  in  classical  American 
slang,  "Money  talks,"  but  Cyrus  W.  Field,  the  Worker,  knew 
much  about  relative  values ;  he  sandwiches  Money  between  Brains 
and  Work  to  give  it  the  rich  flavor  of  Service!  What  would 
Maury  have  us  do  to  keep  alive  the  beneficent  ferment  of  his 
Brain?  We  may  learn  only  by  an  open-minded  study  of  his  life, 
as  revealed  in  letters  to  family,  friends  and  officials ;  they  are  un- 
conscious self-revelations— the  portrayal  of  Maury  by  Maury! 
His  greatness  and  goodness,  his  tenderness  and  fortitude,  his  pa- 
triotism and  faith  are  all  there !  Would  that  they  were  accessible 
to  the  youth  of  the  world,  which  he  served  so  long  and  so  well ! 

The  limit  of  this  sketch  permits  but  a  brief  reference  to  his 
address  delivered  in  June,  1855,  before  the  Washington  and  the 
Jefferson  Literary  Societies  of  the  University  of  Virginia;  start- 
lingly  prophetic  was  it  of  that  fratricidal  conflict  which,  six  years 

11 


later,  threatened  the  destruction  of  the  government  which  Vir- 
ginia, not  a  century  before,  had  been  foremost  in  founding;  also, 
sympathetically  impressive  was  he  concerning  the  duties  of  free 
citizenship. 

There  is  another  university  with  which  he  was,  in  a  sense, 
more  intimately  associated;  not  three  months  before  the  tocsin 
sounded  which  called  the  nation  to  arms,  Maury  was  summoned 
by  his  old  friend  and  mentor,  Bishop  Otey  of  Tennessee,  to  lay 
the  cornerstone  of  the  University  of  the  South  at  Sewanee.  Thither 
he  went  and  assisted  in  laying  the  foundation  of  that  institution 
so  much  needed  to  preserve  the  high  religious  and  political  ideals 
of  our  civilization.  And  thither,  after  the  collapse  of  the  Con- 
federacy, he  was  again  called  as  Superintendent,  "to  stand  by" 
during  the  perilous  days  of  Reconstruction.  Circumstances  oblig- 
ed Maury  to  decline  this  call,  as  he  did  a  professorship  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia. 

Events  hastened.  In  February,  1861,  seven  Southern  States 
had  already  seceded  and  formed  a  government  with  the  capital 
at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  while  the  Virginia  Convention,  still 
hoping  to  avert  war,  was  sitting  at  Richmond.  Lincoln's  call  for 
an  army  of  75,000  men  made  the  issue  one  of  coercion.  Opinion 
changed  overnight,  and  within  three  days  after  the  fall  of  Sumter 
the  Virginia  Convention  passed  the  Ordinance  of  Secession  and 
called  her  loyal  sons  to  her  defence  against  invasion.  In  obe- 
dience to  the  call  of  duty,  three  days  later  Maury  resigned  from 
the  United  States  Navy  and  unhesitatingly  -cast  in  his  lot  with  his 
native  State.  He  was  appointed  by  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
one  of  a  Council  of  Three  on  Naval  Defence.  On  October  23rd, 
1862,  he  was  appointed  a  Commander  in  the  Confederate  Navy. 
He  had  already  established  a  Confederate  Submarine  Battery 
Service,  invented  an  electric  torpedo  for  the  defence  of  Rich- 
mond by  water,  and  assisted  in  fitting  out  the  "Virginia"  for  her 
short  but  destructive  career  in  Hampton  Roads,  when  he  was 
sent  to  England  to  purchase  torpedo  material,  "a  service  clearly 
within  the  capacity  of  a  junior  officer."  He,  with  his  youngest 
son,  left  Charleston  on  a  swift  blockade  runner  in  October,  1862, 
to  begin  in  April,  1863,  the  service  of  Naval  Agent  of  the  Con- 
federacy abroad.  The  next  two  years  were  fraught  with  inex- 

12 


pressible  griefs  and  heart-breaking  cares,  but  with  faith  unshaken 
and  a  conscience  void  of  offence  toward  God  and  man,  he  stood 
bravely  to  his  post,  while  his  wife  in  Virginia  was  crushed  by  the 
mysteriously  tragic  fate  of  their  son,  Lieutenant  John  Herndon 
Maury,  at  Vicksburg,  and  the  cruel  vicissitudes  of  war,  which 
made  another  son  a  cripple  and  a  son-in-law  a  prisoner  of  war. 

In  March,  1865,  Maury  received  orders  to  return  home,  but 
before  he  left  England  the  news  came  of  Lee's  surrender ;  when  he 
reached  St.  Thomas,  Danish  West  Indies,  he  received  the  partic- 
lars  of  the  collapse  of  the  Confederacy  and  of  the  assassination  of 
Lincoln.  Proceeding  to  Cuba,  he  sent  his  son  Matthew  thence  to 
Virginia. 

Virginia  had  grounded  her  arms  and  following  her  lead,  4 
•tuLuii  uf^uii'oudur,  he  sent  his/fuu'u4  to  the  Commander  of  the 


United  States  Gulf  Squadron.  He  immediately  wrote  to  Maximil- 
ian, then  Emperor  of  Mexico,  tendering  him  the  services  of  a  man 
without  a  country  and  followed  his  letter  without  awaiting  a  re- 
ply. He  was  graciously  received  by  Maximilian  and  offered  a 
cabinet  position;  this  Maury  declined,  but  accepted  the  offer  of 
Commissioner  of  Immigration,  with  the  purpose  of  establishing 
a  colony  of  Virginians  in  the  fertile  and  delightful  Terra  Tem- 
plada  of  Mexico.  The  wisdom  of  this  action  has  been  questioned. 
If  Maury  erred  in  seeking  remunerative  service  in  Mexico,  then 
every  Southerner,  similarly  situated,  who  left  that  impoverished 
section,  whether  for  religious,  business,  or  political  reasons,  like- 
wise erred.  Truly,  the  South,  at  that  time,  sorely  needed  every 
loyal  son,  but  wise  and  loyal  sons  may  use  self-determination  as 
to  how  to  render  the  best  service  to  the  homeland.  Besides,  the 
human  instinct  of  self-preservation,  as  we  have  seen,  breeds  exiles. 
It  is  also  true  that  self-interest  is  a  powerful  factor  in  the  spread 
of  civilization.  Note,  for  example,  St.  Paul's  appeal  unto  Caesar 
and  the  results  following  his  visits  to  Athens  and  to  Rome.  Again, 
consider  Caxton,  the  Kentish  lad;  he  served  in  Flanders  as  Gov- 
ernor of  the  English  Guild  of  Merchant  Adventurers  and  as  copy- 
ist for  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy.  After  an  absence  of  thirty-five 
years,  the  printing  press  was  the  precious  freight  he  brought  back 
to  England !  And  behold  the  power  of  the  Press  to-day ! 

Great  as  were  the  material  results  of  the  coming  of  the 

13 


Washingtons,  the  Lees,  and  the  Maurys,  it  is  our  proud  boast 
that  the  grandeur  of  their  character  dims  the  glory  of  their 
achievements.  But  to  return  to  Maury:  there  were  weighty 
reasons  for  his  acceptance  of  service  in  Mexico;  he  was  now  in 
his  sixtieth  year  and  in  declining  health.  His  property,  accumu- 
lated during  thirty-six  years'  naval  service,  had  been  swept  away 
by  the  harsh  fortunes  of  war;  without  a  home  or  an  acre  of  land 
to  cultivate,  he  must  provide  for  his  wife  and  four  minor  children, 
refugees  and  in  need.  Moreover,  his  life  was  no  more  jeopardiz- 
ed in  Mexico  under  the  rule  of  the  best  of  the  Hapsburgs  than  in 
Virginia  under  constitutional  government.  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  United  States  Minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  had 
advised  English  friends  of  Maury  to  counsel  him  against  return- 
ing to  Virginia  while  passion  still  held  sway  in  Washington.  Were 
not  Jefferson  Davis  and  Alexander  Stephens  languishing  in  pri- 
son, and  were  not  Mrs.  Surratt  and  Major  Wirz  doomed  to  die? 

Maury  was  soon  established  in  Mexico  as  Commissioner  of 
Immigration;  here  his  son,  Colonel  R.  L.  Maury,  soon  joined  him, 
and,  as  secretary  to  the  Commissioner,  could  carry  on  the  work; 
this  enabled  his  father  to  obtain  leave  to  visit  his  family  in  Eng- 
land, and,  incidentally,  to  perform  some  governmental  service  in- 
trusted to  him  by  the  Emperor. 

Little  did  Maury  dream  when  the  shores  of  Mexico  faded 
from  sight,  as  he  sailed  eastward,  that  never  again  would  he  re- 
turn to  the  proud  Empire  of  the  Montezumas,  to  cultivate  his  cin- 
chona groves,  and  to  help  Mexico  along  on  the  rugged  road  to  civ- 
ilization. But  so  it  was.  He  had  not  been  long  in  England  before 
a  revolution  in  Mexico  resulted  in  the  tragic  death  of  Maximil- 
ian ;  consequently,  the  plan  of  founding  a  Virginia  Colony  there 
was  abandoned;  but  Maury  remained  two  years  longer  in  Eng- 
land, until  conditions  in  the  United  States  were  somewhat  im- 
proved. During  those  years,  his  English  friends  gave  him  hos- 
pitable welcome  and  timely  aid;  the  failure  of  the  bank  in  which 
he  deposited  the  funds  he  brought  from  Mexico,  with  the  loss  of 
all  of  his  American  investments,  made  him  poor  indeed;  then  it 
was  that,  at  a  public  dinner  in  London,  he  was  presented  with  a 
testimonial  of  3,000  Guineas  raised  by  public  subscription. 

Nor  were  his  friends  in  America  less  active  in  his  behalf ;  they 

14 


were  as  anxious  for  his  return  as  he  to  share  their  poverty  in.  the 
restoration  of  Virginia.  Nor  was  he  idle;  with  the  aid  of  his 
wife  and  daughters  he  was  getting  ready  for  publication  a  series 
of  school  geographies.  This  done,  he_ instructed  the  officers  of 
many  European  nations  in  the  use  of<fe  torpedo/T/ic,  £ 

When  the  Chair  of  Physics  in  the  Virginia  Military  Insti- 
tute was  tendered  him,  he  saw  the  way  opened  to  serve  the  old 
Commonwealth  in  the  congenial  field  of  Scientific  Research,  and, 
by  public  addresses,  to  press  upon  the  people  the  necessity  of  diver- 
sified agricultural  pursuits  and  of  co-operative  meteorological 
work  on  land.  In  1868,  he  was  back  in  Virginia,  making  ready  to 
take  up  the  physical  survey  of  the  State,  in  close  friendship  and 
fellowship  with  all  that  were  left  of  the  great  Virginians  of  the 
olden  time.  He  made  his  home  in  the  little  valley  town  of  Lex- 
ington, named  in  commemoration  of  that  far-away  hamlet,  where 
the  first  martyrs  of  the  Revolution  fell.  Here,  he  and  Lee,  friends 
and  neighbors,  trained  the  younger  generation  in  the  high  duties 
of  citizenship  till  "God's  finger  touched  them  and  they  slept." 

Matthew  Fontaine  Maury  was  the  embodiment  of  that  type  of 
greatness  and  goodness  which  finds  expression  in  an  unquench- 
able enthusiasm  for  service.  His  loyalty  to  duty  and  his  service 
to  mankind,  extending  over  a  period  of  nearly  fifty  years,  pro- 
ject upon  the  page  of  history  material  and  moral  influences  as 
yet  unrecognized.  The  records  of  his  life  are  accessible  and 
await  the  inspired  pen  of  a  biographer  equal  to  the  task.  To  in- 
terpret the  spiritual  value  of  one  of  the  noblest  lives  ever  launched 
upon  the  tide  of  time  is  a  challenge  to  genius.  May  Heaven-direct- 
ed "winds  and  currents"  bear  this  challenge  to  genius  consecrated 
to  the  high  undertaking ! 

"His  work  is  done ; 

But  while  the  races  of  mankind  endure, 
Let  his  great  example  stand 
Colossal,  seen  of  every  land, 

And  keep  the  soldier  firm,  the  statesman  pure ; 

Till  in  all  lands  and  thro'  all  human  story 

The  path  of  duty  be  the  way  to  glory.*' 


